Over the years I have stumbled on some documentary movies that were not overtly about entrepreneurs, but turn out to be. They are various portraits of people who have managed to channel their obsession to accomplish great things.

Man on Wire. this movie is about a French tightrope walker who decided at a young age that he was going to walk on a tightrope between the twin towers in NYC knowing that he would never be given permission. The movie chronicles the multi-year preparation of the mission, including recruiting a team to implement his crazy idea. Want to know the qualities of a good entrepreneur? Watch this movie.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work. This movie made me realize that Joan Rivers is a true entrepreneur. She has worked harder in her 80s than most people work over their whole career. You also get the sense of her complete devotion to her craft. Read More

At OCA, we continuously evaluate our investment themes. We look for long-term, sustainable macro trends. If we are right about these themes, it gives us two advantages: (1) our companies will have more margin of error in execution. In niche markets, a company has to execute flawlessly but in large and growing markets fueled by macro trends, you can screw up a couple of things and still achieve a good exit for all shareholders. And (2) once educated in a theme, there are great economies of scale in due diligence, exits, recruiting, deal sourcing and other areas.

One of my biggest issues with iOS7 is that Apple is fairly inconsistent with the use of iconography vs. text. Take the email app, for example. If you swipe left in the listing view, it gives you options using text like “Trash”. But in other instances (like looking at a specific message), there is a trash can icon. Even though it didn’t need to use icons for screen real-estate purposes, iOS6 used icons more often and more consistently. Icons transcend language and makes translating an app into a different language a much easier endeavour. I have always admired LEGO instructions since they never need translation. Why can’t software be the same?

Icons are much more powerful than using words. Some people’s associations with icons are so strong, that even after the obsolescence of the item the icon is depicting, the icon persists. What icon do you click to save a document in Word? A diskette. When was the last time you used a 3.5″ floppy disk? My kids, the oldest of whom is 8, all know that’s what you click to save but they have never seen a diskette in their lives (and may never).